COMMUNITY VOICES | Letters of wife of MN Congressman Walter Judd to be published as book

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Miriam Barber Judd was a prolific letter writer. She could pour out her feelings and experiences much more easily on paper than propriety allowed her to in daily life. The result is an amazing collection of letters (she left almost 2,000) and private writings that give a real-time, first-person account of the life behind a public servant.Now her daughter, Mary Lou Judd Carpenter, has put these together in a volume called Miriam’s Words: The Personal Price of a Public Life. These selections give a chronological, well-written, insightful account of the life of the spouse of a public servant, Dr. Walter Judd, who was a medical missionary to China in the 1920s and 1930s, a 20-year Congressman and a delegate to the United Nations. Miriam kept the home fires burning, and was an undaunted masterful manager of the many worlds she inhabited.What is seldom heard is the price of such service. Continue Reading

FREE SPEECH ZONE | Taste of Thailand

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I have a bit of an obcessive personality. Sometimes it’s trying to figure out how to perfect duo color swirls on cupcakes…other times it’s finding the best chocolatier in town. For a long time, it’s been trying to find the perfect pad thai. Not too sweet, but tangy. Not too spicy, but flavorful. Continue Reading

Standing up for Lao art in Minnesota

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A Lao writer pointed an interesting fact to me last week: After 8 months and 7 free plays at the Playwrights Center with over 50 actors, 12 special guests, free food and drinks, 24 hours of driving from Mankato and 45 documented hours of writing scripts, only two Lao people came to see her plays. And I was one of them.

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